You pick up your boat in the surprisingly cool Split, then poke your way amidst the islands towards Dubrovnik. The itinerary is your own. Only a start and end date. The rest is up to you. You can get a boat of virtually any size to match how big your party is. Regular sailboats, catamarans, or what we chose, a unique Turkish gulet. Or you can play in the party that is Yacht Week, a brilliant way for small young groups to meet other like-minded people of your age. Ohhh, if this was around when I was young…

But now, I’m older. And so are my friends. So this is how we did it.

Highly recommend you try and swing a sailboat charter in Croatia. You can backpack or ferry between islands, but having your own steam allows you to duck in and out of the thousands of islands along the Dalmatian coast. These pics are a companion post to my boat pics, following along our route chronologically so you can get a feel for how you can visit a completely different place every single day, without leaving your boat.

When you have your own boat, you carry your house on your back, so you load in once and never have to leave. Meanwhile you get to visit a different island every day.

We started out our journey flying into cool Split. We chose to stay at Le Meridien, which I normally would pass on, but the boat would pick us up in their harbor. This was easy and beautiful. And about half the cost of Le Meridiens elsewhere.

I was totally blown away by Split. I wasn’t expecting much, thinking it would be an overly-touristed harbor town, but I couldn’t believe how cool it was. I’m a Roman Empire fan and I couldn’t believe how well preserved a lot of the old city was, just as it has always been, for thousands of years. Diocletian’s Palace just was fantastic. A warren of alleys and crooked streets. Sure, touristy, but the backdrop was jaw-dropping.

I wish we had an extra day wandering the alleys and streets of old Split. Always leave wanting…

Definitely wade through the lines and climb this thing.

The view is amazing. Go in the morning. I’m sure sunset is also good.

Crowded, but good.

It’s a tight fit, but you’ll love it

I love occuluses — like The Pantheon in Rome. This one was good, too. In The Palace. Usually an a capella group is singing there, playing off the killer acoustics.

We picked up our boat at 5pm, so we had to scoot across the archipelago to find a cool place to anchor for the night. Postira was it. On the big island of Brac. We found this great place to eat, where they whipped out a table for all 12 of us. It was good. I don’t remember the name. I mean, seriously, how cool is this little place? What you can’t see is the awesome sunset behind me. Seems like every little town is built around the sunset in Croatia. Everyone toasting as each day disappears over the horizon. God bless ’em.

Postira was a nice little harbor village. Turns gorgeous at night. When you charter your own boat, you carry your house on your back, so you can visit a different cool town every day and be back in your own bed each night. The problem with Croatia is every town is cool. You don’t want to leave. Which kinda defeats the whole purpose… But you do, for Science. And beer.

The great thing about being on your own boat is that you load-in once, but arrive in a different place every day. No hotels. No suitcases. No “Let’s all meet in the lobby.” It’s like a constantly moving villa. The portal is your TV, changing channels every hour.

Heading to dinner. My favorite thing to do — well, other than every other part of the day on the boat. At 33 meters long, Queen of the Adriatic is about twice as long as even the biggest sailboats you can charter. Which means you can’t just tie up in port, cheek-by-jowl next the other dozens of boats. You have to anchor with the big boys outside the small harbors. We saw that as a plus. Freshly showered and some happy hour buzz strapped on, few things were as fun as taking off to shore each night, giddy to explore a new town. The dinghy is small, so we had to do it Navy SEAL style and send the first reconnaissance team ahead to start scoping out the town and figure out where to eat. Others would follow on the next wave. Each town a little different, each restaurant offering a special experience. Always sitting outside, under the fresh air and ice cold Karlovačkos, the twelve of us often splitting a single huge grilled fish caught that day. Once pleasantly watered and fed, our Recovery Team, Bruno the Chef, would slip in under the cover of darkness to pick us up and sneak us back out again. Out there, bobbin’, grinning at the full moon.

Vis was another awesome town. If you look at the map, we scooted between the islands and ran out to Vis. Definitely would recommend Pajoda, one of the nicest restaurants in town.

It ain’t easy showing up unannounced with twelve people, anywhere. But in Croatia, everywhere we went, tables were whisked out of nowhere, set up on the sidewalk, chairs carried over the heads of diners, tablecloths whipped out and wrinkles smoothed with precision, like a French maid at The Ritz. Then candles, of course. Everyone was so nice, so fun. Not cheesy tourist hucksters. Genuine. Proud to show us their great country. Everywhere we went. Food was simple, but awesome and always a great deal, from $20-40USD per, even with us drinking like sailors. Because we were sailors. Harhaaaar. (Wait, that’s a pirate… nevermind).

… amazing dinners every night, like this. At Pajoda in Vís town. Outside. Under a full moon. Six different languages overheard at once. All twelve of us gnawing on one great big grilled fish. Like cats.

Us.

HVAR

Hvar is cool. Everything looks different at night.

Fun to just drop into a new town every night and go exploring.

Everywhere looked awesome in Hvar.

Love these marble stones all over Croatia. Love to walk on them, would hate to have to make ’em.

We found a great restaurant in the middle of the big hill on Hvar. Paladino. It was nice. Not unbelievable.

Don’t mind us, we’ll just slip in riiiight here for the night… We were too big to be in the main harbor of Hvar, so we anchored a couple of coves away, our own private paradise.

“Honey, the boys and I’ll just be at the bar around the corner…”

The water. I can’t say enough about the color and clarity of the water in Croatia. Italy is beautiful, but the trashy shores you see are disappointing. Here. Clear as a bell, nearly everywhere we went.

At night, Hvar amps up. It is definitely a stop on the backpacker route. So it was good to get a nice meal, then to be able to motor back to our isolated cove and our own quiet fun.

Every damn day.

Korčula was our next stop, after a long day slog on the water. Korčula was everyone’s favorite and a place we all wanted to come back to and spend more time. That’s what’s great about sailing, you see a different island every day, but get a great overview of where you want to come back.

Korčula was our next stop, after a long day slog on the water. Korčula was everyone’s favorite and a place we all wanted to come back to and spend more time. That’s what’s great about sailing, you see a different island every day, but get a great overview of where you want to come back.

One of the best things about sailing in Croatia is anchoring on a new island, taking the boat into a new town and everyone fans out. Roving the nooks and crannies, alleys and terraces, looking for the absolute best place to eat. There was a surprise around every corner, on every island. The hard thing was choosing just one.

We ate here in this cool alley in Korcula. Amfora Pizza. Perfect for what we were in the mood for. And a break from fish.

Just when you’re having fun… along comes a street party.

So many places. So much freedom. So few days.

Context is everything. It’s hard to get a sense of scale how big a 100ft gulet really is when you’re on it. “I’m going to go jump off.” It’s not until you really get out there on that prow thingy that you realize how high up you really are. Knees shaking. Shrinkage. The slightest little boat rock and you plant your feet like a tossed cat. All that training as a kid off the high dive at the local pool seems for not. You bounced better then.

Talented photographer and graphic designer @evantarry was the first to figure out the right technique. Run and jump, don’t stand and worry. Just make it happen. That’s pretty much how he approaches life now…

The rising sun. Coffee. Not a single wave. The neighbors and the pillowheads downstairs still sleeping. All quiet except the trees, speaking loudly. Nothing beats being on your own boat. Except being on your own boat in Croatia.

Same cove. Same dawn. Other side of the boat. Mljet. (Which is just a blast to say out loud. Especially with beer… which, miraculously, makes one more fluent.)

Mljet was our next stop. A national park where you park in a quiet cove and go inland to visit crystal clear inland lakes.

In Mljet, you go ashore and then take a shuttle bus inland to the protected lakes. Then hike around to find the waters.

We just couldn’t get over how clear the water was. You just want to jump in. We did.

After a bunch of hikes, you’re back on the boat for a nice long lunch.

Just peachy.

Mornings are the best in Croatia. But then again, afternoons are pretty good, too. Oh… and sunsets. Nevermind. Croatia is good.

Pulling up anchor in the morning

Bluey.

Working our way to Dubrovnik, we stop next in Sipan. A quiet little fishing village. Aren’t they all?

Sipan was our last stop. Overnighting before dropping us in Dubrovnik.

A surprise around every corner in Croatia. I did not dance.

I voted this as our best sunset the whole week. (And this was just taken with my phone, so you can imagine how much better in person.) It was like eating in front of a Samsung 4K TV demo. But with better surround-sound. And the smell-o-vision feature enabled.

In full Technicolor. And the very astute Marcos says something I ask these people every day.

Chartering Queen of the Adriatic for the week during peak season can be about $25,000 for the week, which sounds like a lot, but when you factor in 12-15 people, six cabins with their own bathrooms, a crew of four, including a chef, a deckhand/bartender/waiter, and even a masseuse, that becomes much more reasonable. Especially when you factor in that that includes abundant breakfasts, gourmet lunches and all the booze you can drink. Oh, fuel, taxes and other incidentals. So for about $2,000/person, you can live like an oligarch, sail with your best friends and go where you want to go. CANNOT be beat. Best trip I’ve ever had.